Design of Robust Fault Tolerant Controller for UAV and Hardware in the Loop Implementation

Description:

In this video, I demonstrate my Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) implementation of a Robust Fault-Tolerant Controller (FTC) for a quadcopter UAV. The HIL setup uses a Nexys A7-100T FPGA to run the controller in real-time, while MATLAB/Simulink provides the dynamic model and monitoring environment.

The proposed FTC combines Integral Backstepping (IBSC), Sliding Mode Control (SMC), and a Nonlinear Disturbance Observer (NLDO) to ensure high robustness against disturbances and actuator/motor faults — even up to 50% thrust loss.

🔹 Controllers Used

1. Integral Backstepping Controller (IBSC)
Applied to translational dynamics (x, y, z).
Ensures smooth tracking, handles nonlinearities, and eliminates steady-state error via an integral term.

2. Sliding Mode Controller (SMC)
Applied to rotational dynamics (roll, pitch, yaw).
Provides strong robustness, fast convergence, and reliable stabilization under motor faults.

3. Nonlinear Disturbance Observer (NLDO)
Estimates actuator faults and external disturbances in real time.
Enhances fault-tolerance capability and maintains stable UAV performance.

🔹 Key Contributions Demonstrated
1. Real-time execution of the proposed FTC on FPGA hardware
2. Comparison between simulation and HIL results
3. Accurate trajectory tracking under actuator degradation
4. Rapid fault rejection and robust stabilization
5. Validation of up to 50% motor fault tolerance

🔵 📄 Related Research Publications

1️⃣ Hardware-in-the-Loop Experimental Validation (MDPI – Fractal & Fractional, Open Access)
https://www.mdpi.com/2504-3110/9/11/682

2️⃣ IBSC + NLDO-SMC Fault-Tolerant Control (Springer – Int. Journal of Dynamics & Control)
https://link.springer.com/article/10....